


Just A Little Time

by RiddleWraith



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Although some things may be fixed anyway, Gen, More like a "Steven getting closure on a few things" fic, Not A Fix-It, Steven internally swears sometimes so get used to it, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:43:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29814828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiddleWraith/pseuds/RiddleWraith
Summary: Steven finds himself in the past with no real idea how it happened. Where others might see an opportunity to change things for the better, Steven only sees the long, long road ahead of him yet again should he choose to take it. He could see in his mind what would happen if he walked down this road again and he was already so, so tired of it all. He just wanted to rest. He didn’t want to start thinking of Homeworld as his enemies again. He didn’t want to constantly have to defend his home planet. He’d already given so much of himself and he wasn’t sure he had anymore to give (and his therapist had told him straight out that giving that much of oneself was never healthy). Oh, and the Jasper from his timeline is here too.
Relationships: Crystal Gems & Steven Universe, Greg Universe & Steven Universe, Jasper & Steven Universe, Rose Quartz | Pink Diamond & Steven Universe
Comments: 9
Kudos: 38





	Just A Little Time

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't really want to post this yet when I only have a few chapters done but my want for people to read it finally outweighed my trepidation at starting yet another ongoing project.

Steven stared at his phone in consternation, looking at the distinct lack of a signal as if it would change any second. He wasn’t _that_ far from the motel he had taken up in for the night and he’d gotten a decent signal there last night when he last called the Gems. He was a little more than two blocks down the road at a little diner, sitting in front of his cooling food and staring at his phone as if it had personally betrayed him. To be fair, his service was usually ridiculously good so he was a little spoiled in the fact that he’d rarely been somewhere that he was completely without service barring when he was in space and _really_ far away from civilization.

He sighed and tucked his phone back into his pocket before starting on the food in front of him. He would just have to call Connie once he got back to the motel. It didn’t take him long to eat and breakfast was far less than he thought it would be. Feeling generous even with the lack of breakfast with his favorite person, Steven left a generous tip before walking out the door to start down the street.

It wasn’t long before he reached his destination. He unlocked the Dondai he had parked in the Motel parking lot and sat in the driver’s seat, pulling his phone out once more to call Connie. His heart sank a little when he realized he still had no signal. How was he getting no signal here when he had a halfway decent one last night not ten feet away from where he was now?

He halfheartedly left the car and walked right up to the door of the room he had checked out of this morning. Well, more like there was no one at the desk as early as he had left so he just left the key at the desk as he had paid for the night when he checked in the day prior. As he thought, his signal didn’t come back in the least. With a sigh he pressed his head to the door, his shoulders drooping in defeat.

He would have to find a payphone to call Connie from. He was thankful he had thought to map out his planned route and mark off where he had been so far on his trip. He had done it with the expectation that there would be times he couldn’t get a signal to use his GPS but he hadn’t expected it to happen anywhere with actual signs of civilization. He was caught off guard and he didn’t like it, especially as he had gotten a signal here just fine last night.

He took a deep breath and willed himself to move, drawing himself up from his slump against the motel door and turning back toward the Dondai. He made his way to his car robotically, fighting to keep his thoughts in check. There was no reason to freak out. The network must have gone down after he went to bed last night.

They were probably working on fixing the issue even now. Feeling more assured at his own thoughts, he got back in the Dondai and turned it on, backing out of his spot and turning the car toward the driveway. It didn’t take him long to find a payphone in the small town. He found one at the only gas station in town, small as the place was.

When his eyes found the blue phone stand he immediately slowed and turned into the small parking lot, pulling right up to the phone. It took him a matter of seconds to crank the widow down and reach for the handset. He fished some change out of his pocket and fed the phone the amount of change the small sign beside the slot asked for. He dialed Connie’s number immediately, not even needing to look at his phone as Connie’s number was one of the ones he knew by heart.

His anxiety spiked when he got an error message and he could tell by the reflected glow on the windshield that his face was starting to glow pink very faintly. He pulled the phone away from his ear and took a deep breath, being ever so careful to avoid crushing the phone in his hand. It didn’t calm him as much as he would like but he ignored that in favor of pushing the change return button so he could try another number without wasting the change. Something had probably just happened to Connie’s phone.

He tried her home phone this time, knowing that she should hear it easily if she was still in the kitchen eating. She would likely be waiting for his call anyway. He listened as it rang for about thirty seconds before an unfamiliar woman answered the phone.

“Do you know how early it is?” she asked and Steven instinctively winced before answering.

“Sorry ma’am. I’m trying to reach a friend of mine. Is Connie there?” he asked, assuming that maybe Priyanka had a friend over that was close enough to her to answer her phone.

“Who?” the woman asked, sounding suspicious for a reason he couldn’t decipher.

“Connie, ma’am. Connie Maheswaran?” he tried. The woman on the other line huffed.

“There ain’t no Connie Mahaystorm here son! You’ve got the wrong number!” she said angrily, hanging up before he could correct her. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the conversation he had just had. It was unlikely that Connie had moved without telling him and even more unlikely that they had home invaders that would just answer the phone.

If it were anyone else’s number he might have assumed he accidentally dialed it wrong but he knew Connie’s cell and home numbers better than he knew his own and the Gem’s numbers. He had dialed it correctly on the first try, area code and everything. He pulled out his phone and checked her contact information in case he was somehow remembering it wrong. No, those were the numbers he had dialed.

He remembered them right so what was going on? Neither of Connie’s numbers had worked for him, albeit in different ways. He decided to try to call the Gems to see if they could reach her. He didn’t want to overreact if there was a reasonable explanation for whatever was happening.

He called Garnet first as she was the most likely to pick up the phone, likely foreseeing that he would need to speak to her. He got an error message like he had for Connie’s phone and his forced calm nearly broke. He shook as he dialed the numbers of the other Gems one by one and got the same result for each, still very careful to not crush the phone as the pink glow along his skin progressed further with every failed attempt. When he ran out of Gems to call he called his dad’s phone and when that too failed his forced calm broke completely, as did the phone in his hand.

What was happening? Why did none of the numbers he knew work with the exception of Connie’s home phone? Why did some strange woman answer her phone? There was something very, very wrong going on here.

He didn’t understand why he couldn’t reach Connie, his dad or any of the Gems but if he couldn’t call them by phone he would have to reach them another way. He had been hesitant to use his Diamond Communicator purely because it reminded him constantly of what he was but he was getting desperate. They had put a communicator in the house so hopefully one of the Gems would be there to answer it. If not, he might have to call up the one in little Homeworld.

He grabbed it out of his glove box and nearly activated it right there before he remembered that not all folks were used to seeing Gem technology and someone might freak out about it and his currently very pink, very glowing skin. The car creaked dangerously as he pulled out of the lot, his increased weight putting more of a strain on the poor axels than his regular human weight did. He quickly found a back road devoid of houses and pulled off to the side of it, getting out of the Dondai so he wasn’t straining his car if he didn’t have to. He moved away from the car a little and activated his communicator, scrolling through his contacts folder to call the specific hub he wanted to reach.

He tapped the icon for the Crystal Gem home hub and waited as it tried to connect. He got a message saying that the hub he was trying to connect to didn’t exist and he got worried. Something must have destroyed the house again, or at least the communications hub. He tried Little Homeworld’s hub and got the same message.

Desperately, he tapped the moon base icon, seeing if he could at least connect to the repaired hub on the moon base. The call seemed to connect this time though it of course rang without answer before he closed out the call. Okay, so his communicator was still capable of connection if the hub existed which could only mean that somehow or for some unknown reason, the ones in the house and Little Homeworld had been destroyed. Should he call the Diamonds for this?

Maybe he was just freaking out for no reason and he just couldn’t reach anyone because of some freak accident. He knew the Diamonds would be only too happy to talk to him again, never mind help him if he needed it but he was hesitant to call them to Earth again so soon after his meltdown. He especially didn’t want to be seen freaking out again if this didn’t turn out to be an emergency. He decided he would drive back to Beach City first.

He didn’t want to talk to the other Diamonds unless he really had to right now. He couldn’t look at White without remembering the terrifying amount of anger he still had for her and the overwhelming urge to shatter her that had come over him when she had used her new power to sync with him. He had legitimately wanted to shatter her and end her existence. He had actually _tried_ to shatter her then.

He didn’t want to be that person. He didn’t want to shatter anyone. He just wanted to live happily and something always seemed to get in the way of that. He selfishly wished that whatever was happening had waited until he was through with his cross country trip.

Knowing his thoughts wouldn’t get him anywhere, he stopped back at the gas station to top off his tank before he headed back the way he came. It was only when he stopped at the gas station the second time that he noticed how absurdly low the gas prices were here. He had never seen them as low as they were at this little station, not anywhere in his entire life. He shook the thought from his head, knowing he didn’t have time to be sidetracked.

A crazy little podunk town with low gas prices meant nothing in the scope of the larger unknown weirdness happening to him. He couldn’t contact any of the people he knew and loved on Earth and until he got to the bottom of what was happening, he wasn’t calling the Diamonds. Ever since his meltdown they had been gung-ho about doing anything he asked and he didn’t want them to come in, guns figuratively blazing if it wasn’t needed. Calling in the Diamonds for anything less than a world ending threat he couldn’t deal with alone was like calling in a nuclear strike to deal with a spider.

The force applied was disproportionate to the force needed. Shaking his thoughts from his head, he finished pumping his gas and quickly hurried into the store to pay. He ignored the stares he got for being huge and glowing pink. His anxiety was bordering on panic and he couldn’t stop his Gem’s reaction to that even now after he’s had months to get used to it. He wouldn’t be able to calm down until he saw his family and friends safe for himself since he couldn’t seem to call _any_ of the ones on Earth.

That thought in mind, he took a deep breath before leaving the small gas station parking lot and heading back the way he came into town yesterday. As long as he drove for as long as he could during the day and slept in the Dondai, he could get back to Beach City far more quickly than his meandering trip had taken him away from it. It should only take him a week if he goes a couple nights without sleeping. He didn’t sleep well when he was stressed anyway and he was going to be stressed until he saw the Gems safe and sound again.

In the end, he drove straight through the first three days and nights but as the morning of the fourth day approached, he started to flag and he decided to stop to sleep for awhile. In the end he was lucky it was a less populated rest stop because no one seemed to have called the cops on him for sleeping in his car or assumed he was dead. He had to count that as a win considering that he hadn’t really moved in nearly ten hours according to the clock in the Dondai. After waking he started to make his way toward Beach City again, stopping only to gas up again at the gas station nearest to the rest stop he had slept in.

The tank hadn’t been completely empty yet but it had been at a quarter of a tank when he had finally stopped on the morning of the fourth day and he didn’t want to chance running out of gas if he passed up this gas station. Once his tank was topped off once more it took him four more full days before he had finally reached Beach City. He slept for at least a few hours every night of the last four days, knowing that he would want to be rested if something was happening in Beach City. When he finally came around the bend and Beach City was laid out before him, the sun was halfway over the horizon and its light streaked across the water toward him.

His attention was momentarily caught on the sunrise but once he looked past it, he let his eyes sweep over Beach City and he relaxed unconsciously. He couldn’t see anything overtly wrong in at least the town itself although something about the town still nagged quietly at the back of his head. He then realized what he was seeing and stopped abruptly, glad that there were no other cars on the road out here right now as he pulled the Dondai off into the parking lot of the abandoned factory on the hill abruptly.

He got out of the car, staring off into the town that looked as if the last nearly four years of his life hadn’t happened. Quite literally, it looked as if he had never existed. The hill at the back of town that hid the temple showed no damage from the crashed hand ship at _all_ and he _knew_ that damage like that didn’t just _go away_. Aside from that, the barn was a lonesome figure once more and Little Homeworld was nowhere to be seen.

He could see the small figures walking about the town as the day started but they were all very clearly human. There was nothing to indicate that any of them were Gems. Where were all the Gems? What had happened?

Why did it look like the hand ship had never crashed into Beach City? Why did it look like Spinel had never come to Earth? The town looked just as it had when he was growing up, before they started dealing with bigger and bigger Gem created problems that caused more and more in collateral damage. There hadn’t been nearly as much damage to Beach City dealing with corrupted Gems as there had been dealing with Homeworld and Spinel when they were still hostile.

It looked as if Little Homeworld was either completely razed to the ground or that it had never existed. As he looked down on a familiar and at the same time utterly alien Beach City, he finally acknowledged that something was really, _really_ wrong here. He booked it back to the Dondai and tore off toward the city, determined to at least make it to the house and see if he could find out what was happening from the Gems. He slowed as he reached the actual town so he wouldn’t hit anyone but he still made good time.

He finally got to the hill and hurried the car around it only to abruptly stop at the complete lack of house between the Temple and the elements. On top of that, there was a chain link fence surrounding the area around the Temple, including the warp pad that was still there. Had the Gems decided they didn’t need the house around the Temple anymore since he was off looking around and deciding where he wanted to live? He wished they would have consulted him about that but he _had_ moved out so he couldn’t really complain.

Still, even the communication hub was gone and the Gems were nowhere in sight. They _could_ be in the Temple and he wouldn’t even know until they came out but why had they effectively cut off contact? Had they found a corrupted Gem that hadn’t yet been healed? Was his dad living in his van again instead of the room Steven had given him?

What was going _on_? His increasingly panicked thoughts were cut off by the sound and flash of the warp pad activating behind the chain link fence. Thank the _stars_! The Gems were coming back!

When the light faded four Gems stepped off the warp pad and Steven just stared. Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl looked different from the forms he had last seen them in and they had a Rose Quartz Gem with them. One that looked eerily like the form his mother had taken to disguise herself. Okay, it was a little weird that they were hanging out with a Rose Quartz but he had made his peace with the Rose Quartz Gems well before his trip across country.

“Garnet!” he called, waving and catching her attention. He saw the Gems all turn to look at him in sync and his heart sank when they all looked at him like he was a stranger. Actually, he corrected himself as he saw the Gems pull out their weapons, they were looking at him like he was a _threat_. The Rose Quartz was the only one not to pull a weapon.

He couldn’t help but flinch back, not understanding the reason for the Gems’ sudden hostility. He closed his eyes as he saw the three armed Gems ready to jump at him but opened them when an achingly familiar voice spoke.

“Stop! Put your weapons away, please.” Said the voice that Steven had only heard on video tape. It was undoubtedly the Rose Quartz that spoke and he watched as his family listened to her and put their weapons away. Why were they so ready to be hostile to him?

Why were they listening to some Rose Quartz? Why were they acting like they didn’t recognize him? Why did she sound so heart-achingly similar to his mother? Even the other Rose Quartz that had looked like his mother hadn’t sounded like her at all and he was _not_ ready to face someone who looked _and_ sounded so similar to her.

“Guys, why are you acting like this? This isn’t funny! When you guys got hit with that rejuvenator I thought I would never get you back and I was really scared! If this is your idea of a prank, it’s a really bad one!” he said, his voice raw as he tried not to cry.

He hadn’t thought his family would do something like this to him. They all looked genuinely confused and the Rose Quartz spoke up.

“I’m sorry, but you must be mistaken. I’ve known these Gems for the last five thousand years. They’ve never been hit with a rejuvenator since I’ve known them. Did you have Gem companions that got rejuvenated?” she asked softly, her voice full of concern.

He didn’t want to believe her but everything else was just so… _off_. There were so many things that were just _missing_ and he _still_ had yet to get a signal on his phone when he last looked. These Gems looked like his family and even acted like them to some extent but somehow, they weren’t the Gems he knew. Something niggled in the back of his mind, a feeling that all these small, strange things he’d been experiencing and this very, very large strange thing were all connected.

Beach City as a whole looked like it had regressed. It looked like someone had somehow reversed time and it was back to the way it was when Steven was a child. His stomach dropped at his own thoughts. That was ridiculous to even think, so why did he feel so much dread at the thought?

It was probably the fact that no matter what he said, he would rather _not_ do everything he’d had to do over again. On top of that, the only experience he had with time travel before this, if that’s what this was, was watching multiple future versions of him from an alternate timeline trying their level best to kill each other, all in pursuit of one little device. He didn’t know what had led to some future version of him trying to _murder_ other versions of _himself_ but he hoped to never be in a situation like that one. He had _enough_ trauma for one life time, thanks.

Was this really a case of time travel? He didn’t even have a Gem device. The only Gem stuff he had with him aside from his communicator was his actual Gem. Communicators didn’t have any time travel functionality as they were made purely for communication purposes.

“Are you okay?” _she_ asked, and Steven felt himself lose his breath for a moment. If this _wasn’t_ time travel, someone was doing a damn good job of faking it. He couldn’t keep looking at the Gems. He needed to go somewhere and _think_ before he had another meltdown.

From what he could tell, no one here would be equipped to handle it with non-violent means if it resulted in the same thing his last meltdown had resulted in. None of them _knew_ him. He turned around and bolted back into the Dondai before they could do more than exclaim in surprise. He was buckled and off the beach within ten seconds, tearing down the road faster than was really safe.

When he looked in his rearview mirror and saw that the Gems weren’t following him he let out a sigh of relief and slowed, finally parking the car in front of Fish Stew Pizza and heading in to order so he could eat while he thought. The man working the front was either an incredibly young Kofi or someone was going through a _lot_ of trouble to make him think he had time traveled. Did Kofi have a nephew that looked like him? Just because he hadn’t met them or heard about them didn’t mean they didn’t exist.

It only meant that they likely didn’t live in Beach City, at most. Maybe he had a much younger brother? He shook these thoughts from his head and stepped up to the counter, ordering a veggie deluxe pizza before he went to sit down at a booth and wait for it. He rested an arm on the table, absentmindedly tapping it as he thought things out.

He needed a way to tell definitively what had happened, whether that was time travel or something else. He needed something that would show him definite proof that things around him were _not_ the same as they were just a week ago. Wait, his Diamond communicator was programmed to show the current date or at least the Gem date. He knew which dates correlated to which on Earth so he could find out from that.

His communicator still needed to be connected to the Gem’s network to work but it was. It was Pink’s old Diamond communicator and it never got disconnected so there shouldn’t be a reason it would be now. He had called the moon base earlier, even if no one answered. He hadn’t paid attention to the Gem date the last time he activated it because he didn’t feel the need to.

Since it was connected to the current Gem network, it should show the current date easily. He was moved from his thoughts by the sight of his pizza seemingly bobbing in midair on its own by his table. Well, until the apparently _very_ short woman put it on his table. Wait, was that Nanefua?

He tried not to stare as she walked away, taking in the details of the short woman before she disappeared to the kitchen again. If it wasn’t her then she too had a lookalike, and one that appeared younger too. He rubbed his eyes and sighed, trying to stow the thoughts away while he got to work on eating his pizza. He wouldn’t know for sure until he checked his communicator again which wasn’t happening until he was somewhere he wouldn’t be seen again.

While the Pizza’s (or the lookalikes that were running the shop) might see Gem stuff here or there, even they would be startled by Gem tech. Especially if he really was in the past somehow and Gems hadn’t integrated into Beach City yet. If there was one thing he didn’t need, it was lookalikes of his family breathing down his neck because they heard he had Gem tech from the people in Beach City. If they found out he had a Diamond communicator he could likely say goodbye to any non-hostile communications from their side at the very least.

He didn’t want to fight his family. He _really_ didn’t want to fight his mom. He wasn’t worried about losing as he had developed his powers far beyond the scope of his mother’s. He was more worried about accidentally doing to her what he had done to Jasper. He had used the last of the Diamonds’ essences to heal Jasper’s shattered pieces back together in his panic and he hadn’t collected anymore before he had gone on his trip as nobody had thought they would need more right away.

If he really was in the past, he wouldn’t have access to the Diamonds’ essences now as they would still be the unfeeling, pitiless rulers of Homeworld at this point. He shuddered at the thought of it. Would he _really_ have to do it _all_ again? Just because he had said he’d be ready for anything didn’t mean he _wanted_ to do everything over.

He got that he and the Diamonds’ thousands of years of grief had been the catalyst for change for the other Diamonds, but he was just so _tired_ of dealing with everyone else’s problems. He deserved a break from it. It had only been a couple months since his meltdown and he didn’t want to push his mental health even further. The only reason he wasn’t still in a state of panic over not being able to reach his family was because even he couldn’t maintain that level of panic for a week without falling into a panic attack and temporarily crippling his ability to act coherently which would have stopped him from getting back to Beach City as quickly as he had.

Aside from that, seeing Beach City whole if not exactly unchanged did wonders for his anxiety levels. Sure, he still had a constant low running anxiety over not being able to reach Connie or the Gems via phone or communicator but he wouldn’t be able to reach them anyway if he really was in the past. If he was, then that Rose Quartz he saw was THE Rose Quartz which meant that he wasn’t born yet. As he had a year and three months on Connie, she definitely wouldn’t be born yet.

The other Gems wouldn’t have phones yet and they certainly wouldn’t have a Gem communicator. He sighed before taking another bite from his slice of pizza, staring sightlessly at the greasy pile of cheese and veggies on the pizza pan as he thought. It was starting to look more and more like he was in the past even if he hadn’t initiated the time travel himself. He was already starting to feel resigned to it and he didn’t know how to feel about that.

If he was in the past, would he be able to return to his own time? Would he be stuck here, forced to fight Homeworld again when they came back? It wasn’t as if anyone _would_ force him but he wouldn’t be able to just sit back and watch them try to destroy his home again. Even if he wasn’t at full power, he could still make a change.

No matter what level his Gem abilities were at, he could still change things for the better. Shit, what about Spinel?! If he really was in the past, she should likely be a priority. Then again, if he did go grab Spinel, what the hell would he even do with her?

Would she even listen if he told her she could leave with him? He would likely have to reveal his Gem just to get her to listen to him and he wasn’t sure he could keep her quiet about it. Hell, he wasn’t sure he could convince her that he isn’t his mother. The last thing he needed was Spinel walking around Beach City with him calling him Pink or worse yet, Pink Diamond.

What the hell should he _do_? He decided that he would pick his next course of action after he had looked at the Gem date. With that decided, he got a box for the half a pizza he hadn’t eaten yet and left. He drove out to the barn, hoping that none of the DeMayos would be there to catch him on their property without explanation.

Beach City didn’t really have any non main roads with the exception of the one that led out to where the barn used to be as they all went through the town. This was the best he was going to get, especially as no one would see him out there as long as none of the DeMayos were in town. When he arrived, it was to find more evidence of his absurd theory as the Barn came into view over the hill as if Lapis had never moved it. It was as seemingly abandoned as it ever was before they had made use of it.

He pulled over and hurried out of the car, stepping away from it before activating his communicator again. He was dismayed but not totally surprised at this point to find that the date read as twenty years prior to the date he should have woken up on. He had around three years until he was even _born_. He groaned, wondering if he could find a way to fix it or if he would be able to just wait it out.

It wasn’t an _ideal_ solution by any means but he was wary of what interacting with any Gems more than he already had would do to his future. His parents were already together at this point which meant Greg was likely living with Vidalia. If he were even three years younger he would have been ecstatic at the chance to interact with his mom and learn more about her and his dad. He had been given bits and pieces of information on his dad’s life and his mother as he grew but it was only within the last few years that he learned the bulk of what he knew about them.

He still loved his dad but this time didn’t have anything to really teach him about Greg Universe that he really needed to know immediately. He felt more than a little ambivalent about his mom to say the least. He knew that ultimately she and the Crystal Gems had saved the Earth from Homeworld for five thousand years. It was only due to his actions that Homeworld came back to Earth so soon.

They would have inevitably come back for the cluster after it had formed but at that point there wouldn’t have been an Earth to save. He knew that most of what she did, she did to save the Earth. That didn’t mean he didn’t still resent her. That didn’t mean he wanted to be _anything_ like her.

That _certainly_ didn’t mean he wanted to meet her or _talk_ to her. While it might do him some good to vent to his mother, this version of her didn’t know him. This version of her hadn’t yet given birth to him. Even if she had, it would be another version of Steven and not _him_.

She hadn’t done anything to him if he wanted to get technical about it. Even she might not understand some of the choices his mother made, though at this point she’s made most of them herself. He groaned and finally closed his communicator, not wanting to accidentally call the other Diamonds. He was so, _so_ glad he hadn’t let his panic get the better of him and called them.

He didn’t know if he was alone here or what, but if they didn’t remember the events of the future he would basically _have_ to admit he had Pink Diamond’s Gem to them sooner or later. Probably sooner if they took offence to him, an unknown Gem, using the Diamond line to try to call for help like they had with Peridot. He had no reason to think they would have traveled too. He seemed to be the anomaly here which likely meant he was here alone.

The question was, did doing anything here affect his own timeline? Could he accidentally prevent his own existence? Unlike the last time he had apparently experienced this, he didn’t have a device to destroy, nor was there a Steven here that would survive should something happen to him. Given, Rose had probably already decided that she wanted him to exist so unless he screwed up so badly that the Earth was destroyed or discovered by Homeworld early, it was likely he would still exist here.

He could just leave the planet and try not to worry about it. Homeworld might discover him out in the wider galaxy given their reach but as long as he didn’t say anything about Earth, he should be fine. He could even pretend to be a Rose Quartz like his mother had. Then again, seeing as they were all locked up after his mom’s rebellion on the fear of them rebelling as well, he doubted that would go over very well.

He would have to think of a new if temporary Gem identity. He couldn’t very well go around claiming to be Pink Diamond right out of the gate, not in the least because there still existed in this timeline the _actual_ Pink Diamond. Hiding or not, she and the other Diamonds would take offense to that. Claiming to be a Rose Quartz would likely have a better result, if still not the one he wanted.

He supposed he could pretend to be a Spinel of unusual cut if she wasn’t a unique Gem. He certainly had the approximate size down if Spinel was any indication. He was a little big for a Spinel while he was in his pink form but pretending to be a Quartz would be too on the nose. Okay, so being seemingly stuck in his pink form because of his constant low background hum of anxiety wasn’t ideal for claiming to be anything other than what he was either.

He still didn’t know what to do about his pupils going diamond shaped when he was really emotional. He was lucky the Crystal Gems hadn’t gotten close to him because he didn’t know what shape his pupils were at that point. Rose was further away and hadn’t come even a step closer to him so he didn’t know if she had been close enough to notice. If she had, she didn’t say anything before he had left but he couldn’t be sure she hadn’t noticed.

She probably wouldn’t have said anything in front of the others anyway as it could end up being a clue as to who she was, if inadvertently. He growled in annoyance and scrubbed his hands through his hair, hating that his life plans had been disrupted. He was just starting to feel as if he didn’t need to always have a purpose and then _this_ happened. Thrown back in time with _no_ idea what, if anything he was supposed to be doing and unable to continue his cross country trip.

He didn’t even know if what he did here would make a difference to anything. He also had no clue of the consequences of any of his actions thus far. He was too far in the dark for his liking. The last time he had this little information, they had to take everything Homeworld threw at them at Homeworld’s pace and it had affected his development and mental health negatively to say the least.

He wished he knew what was going on or why this had happened. Did he _have_ a reason to be here or was this just an accident? He knew that _he_ didn’t have a reason for being here but that didn’t mean there _wasn’t_ a reason for him being here. He had stopped believing in that magical destiny stuff even before life, Gems and Homeworld stopped throwing things at him but that didn’t mean that there _wasn’t_ a reason for him being here.

He wasn’t even necessarily talking about in the hypothetical sense, but in the sense that maybe just the _wrong_ set of circumstances happened together to get this effect. Assuming this, the reason would be because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe the reason was that he had an enemy that wanted him to mess his own timeline up and thus sent him back instead of going back in time themselves. It’s possible considering just how many enemies his mother had made but he hadn’t had a Gem that truly still hated him pop up since Bluebird Azurite.

Assuming that, it was a really, really terrible plan as they couldn’t be sure he would screw anything up even if they did succeed in sending him back. They would have probably had better luck if they had sent themselves back instead. He supposed an ally could also have sent him back for some reason but if it _was_ an ally, they hadn’t communicated that reason or their intent to do this to him. He might have bitten their head off if they had but at least then he would still _know_.

The most likely set of circumstances indicated that this was probably an accident, relying on a very specific set of circumstances that would likely never occur again as he couldn’t know what all would have affected it. He knew it was unlikely to be an actual device whether given by friend or foe because traveling through time had been exactly nowhere on his cross country itinerary. Given, he didn’t know for sure, but he was pretty sure you couldn’t accidentally time travel with a device. Surely to use it you would have to know what it was and what to be thinking to use it.

Surely you had to actually _mean_ to go back in time. Then again, he was apparently the one to use the last time travel device they had found. He had no doubt that with his powers not fully under control at that time that he could want to redo something badly enough to power the device to carry him back to the moment he was thinking of. After discovering that, Steven was sure he would have messed around quite a bit with it given his maturity at that age.

He would have undoubtedly used it for trivial things at first and only learned of the horrifying consequences of it later on after many, many uses. In fact, that was likely given how many Stevens had appeared in front of him, all fighting over different versions of the time devices seemingly in an effort to legitimately destroy one another. Apparently, that many of him had annoyed one or more other versions of himself to the point of actual homicide if that was the ultimate result. Wait, would that technically be suicide?

He really didn’t want to think about it or the incident that caused the thought. With a shudder, he forcefully moved his mind past the incident and back on track. He didn’t think he had activated any device even by accident. He was asleep at the time as he certainly hadn’t noticed anything happening while he was awake.

While he couldn’t say he didn’t have regrets about some of the things he had done and how he had acted at times, he didn’t have enough regret to truly wish to redo anything. It may not be perfect but he _liked_ the future he had worked so hard for and given so much of himself to achieve. Ultimately, it could easily be a Gem device that sent him here given that Homeworld could make any number of them. It just wasn’t under his will that it had happened and there had been no strange devices with him when he had woken up that morning as far as he was aware.

It might have rolled under the bed while he was asleep after traveling but it certainly hadn’t done so when he got up and out of bed that first morning because he would have heard it. Aside from that, he had checked under the bed and in every other nook and cranny of the room while gathering his things back up that morning to vacate. He hadn’t seen anything under there or anywhere else or he would have grabbed it, assuming it was something of his. This would be especially true if that something looked like Gem tech.

As far as he knew, he had just been sleeping in one year and had woken up in another without the aid of having gone to sleep on New Year’s Eve. He supposed that no matter the circumstances of _how_ or _why_ he had ended up here, the fact was that he had. Ultimately, it didn’t matter if he had a reason for being here or not. He was here now whether he liked it or not and he had never been very good at just being an observer.

As much as he really, _really_ didn’t want to have to change the minds of the Diamonds again, he didn’t think he could just sit back and watch as things happened to his home planet again. Eventually there would come a time that he couldn’t help but intervene. It was just in his nature to do so. He couldn’t sit back and do nothing while someone else was hurt, even when he was younger and didn’t have the power to do much to protect even himself.

He had always jumped head first into things regardless of what might happen to him due to his strong desire to save the people he loved. It hadn’t always turned out the best but he had gotten through it all and persevered despite the less than ideal circumstances. Even if he tried to tell himself that it wasn’t worth it, he would still end up doing what he needed to if it meant the Steven here got what he never would. He saw the self-destructive path laid out clearly in front of him and he knew that it would hurt him as it had before if he followed it again.

He also knew that he would inevitably walk it again if he stayed here. He couldn’t watch a child get hurt to spare himself of it. He hated the idea of causing himself more pain but he wouldn’t be the person he was if he weren’t willing to endure it so that a child didn’t have to. He didn’t consider himself a hero though once upon a time he’d had vague thoughts of it.

What drove him wasn’t courage to overcome but fear of his loved ones getting hurt if he didn’t protect them. Protectiveness and love powered his shield, true, but it was fear for their safety that made him faster on his feet and quick thinking in a fight. As a hybrid Gem, his emotions had always heightened his abilities and even fear proved no different. He didn’t fight because he was some legendary hero, or because he was a Gem, or because he was the son of Rose Quartz or even because he was a Diamond.

He fought because there were people weaker than him that couldn’t. He fought because his family needed his strength to battle what they had all been up against. He fought because with corrupted Gem beasts, there could be no reasoning. He fought because Homeworld wanted to hurt his family just for being who they were.

He fought because if he didn’t, his home would be gone before he ever got to really live there. He had fought out of necessity only. He _hated_ fighting. He hated hurting anyone or anything.

He was just _so_ tired of hurting other Gems. That was why he always tried to talk uncorrupted Gems down. At this point, he didn’t have any reason to fear that he couldn’t protect his friends or family. Unlike just a few years ago, he had enough control over his abilities to be a genuine threat to whoever would try to hurt his family and friends.

Usually the threat of his abilities was enough to make anyone think twice long enough for him to at least try talking to them. There were of course those who wouldn’t listen no matter what you said like Jasper. The only exception to that came after he had literally _shattered her_ and she had acknowledged him as her Diamond once healed. The thought that he had murdered Jasper and brought her back to life before anyone even knew it crossed his mind not for the first time and he nearly vomited.

He didn’t know what he would have done if that hadn’t worked. He had _shattered_ her. Sure, he could heal _cracked_ Gems on his own but even _he_ couldn’t heal a true shattering by himself. He had almost _ended her existence_ and _that_ was what it took for Jasper to acknowledge him as her Diamond and recognize his authority.

He didn’t want to do that again. He didn’t want to hurt her. He didn’t want to fight Homeworld. He didn’t want White Diamond to once again finally tire of his “game” as she called his literal existence and pull his Gem out of him.

He knew that he would be quicker on the uptake and re-fusing with himself this time which meant that theoretically he shouldn’t need backup. He also knew that being separated from his Gem half had literally almost killed him last time. On top of that, White needed a little time to see that his Gem half was indeed Steven as well and _not_ Pink Diamond in disguise. If being separated was anything as debilitating to his human half as it had been last time, he would likely barely be able to move under his own power and certainly not across a room to his Gem half.

He really, really hoped he could find some other way to convince White that he was who he said he was and emphatically _not_ his mother but it was highly unlikely. Gems didn’t change easily, not even their opinions. Usually, a Gem must be acted upon by a _great_ outside force to change, whether that force is another Gem or a human. He didn’t know if he had the power on his own to _be_ that force.

Before, he had always had his friends behind him supporting him through everything. Even if they were under White’s control at the time, the other Crystal Gems were still there and he’d had Connie with him as well. Through everything, he’s nearly always had someone with him to back him up. The only exception was when he had been thrown into space with Eyeball and even then the Gems had taken the Rubies’ ship and flown out to get him.

He didn’t know what to do here. He didn’t even know how he was thrown back in time but his best bet was that it had something to do with his Gem heritage so he would have to interact with Homeworld at _some_ point. Even with Pink still alive here the Crystal Gems didn’t have much in the way of time travel tech or resources to investigate how it happened. On top of that, he didn’t even know if Gem time travel tech could be used to go forward or even get back to his correct timeline since him being here was inevitably going to change things no matter what he did.

He knew that by now people would have noticed him missing in his timeline and because of how he had planned out his trip, they would know where he was supposed to be as well. He hadn’t contacted Connie that morning so they even had a date stamp. To play it safe, he could wait for Homeworld to investigate in his timeline. They might be able to send someone back with instructions on how to get back home.

 _Stars_ he hoped they did and soon. He didn’t know how long he could stand waiting. His dad had given him enough money for his trip and then some but if he had to rent a place, that would take quite a bit out of his budget. He couldn’t get a legitimate job here because while he did have a driver’s license, it was registered for _twenty years in the future_.

He still needed to eat too. He’d had some food with him in the Dondai but he’d eaten nearly all of it on his frantic drive back to Delmarva. He was interrupted from his train of thought by a bright light out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look to see a Gem _reforming in his car_.

When the light faded Jasper was laying in his backseat looking confused. Not this timeline’s Jasper but _his_ Jasper.

“ _Jasper_!” He said a little desperately, his throat tight. She wasn’t exactly family but she was still a familiar face and somehow that made all the difference. She heard him and she sat bolt upright, putting a hell of a dent in his roof and likely hurting herself if the way she ducked and rubbed her head was any indication. He hurried to open the door in front of her so she didn’t leave a hole in the side of his Dondai.

“How did you get here?” he asked, stepping back so she could get out of the car. She got out and saluted him before speaking.

“I followed you, my Diamond. You ordered me to do what I wanted and I wanted to follow you. I usually hide in your small ship at night and follow it during the day. It’s a lot slower than normal ships so it isn’t hard to do.” She reported.

“It’s called a car, Jasper. How did you get poofed in my back seat?” he asked, a little confused.

“I was hiding in there when you were resting one night and suddenly a wave of pink energy washed over everything. The next thing I remember is reforming in your car.” Jasper said. His anxiety had finally started easing at seeing a familiar face before she said that. His stomach dropped as his anxiety spiked and there was suddenly a _crater_ where he was standing as his Gem reacted to his anxiety.

“I did this?” He asked blankly, his throat getting tighter and his heart beating so hard and so quickly that it _hurt_. He didn’t bother stepping out of the crater. What the _hell_?! Since _when_ did his powers include _time travel_?!

How was he supposed to control something like that? Why was this his life? Why _now_ when he was finally getting the peace he deserved?

“Did what?” Jasper asked, not understanding. He blankly pulled out his Diamond communicator and pointed out the Gem date. It only took Jasper a second to realize what he was talking about. “Time travel as an ability?!” she asked.

He supposed she’d never heard of it either and _surprisingly_ that didn’t reassure him in the least.

“Apparently.” He said tightly, feeling a complex mixture of anxiety and anger at his power being out of his control yet _again_ and things happening to him because of it. Sure, he had the ability to go so fast that time seemed to slow but that was _completely different_ than time travel. Maybe there was a slight chance it was a device that used his power but that didn’t change the fact that while all his stuff including his car and Jasper’s Gem seemed to come with him, _he didn’t find a device_. There was nothing out of the ordinary near him as far as he was aware of it.

The only logical conclusion was that it was him. He was abnormal even for a Gem! What was he even supposed to do now? If he did this, it was an accident which means that at least there wasn’t some stupid cosmic purpose for him being here.

Could he even go back? How would he bring Jasper and all his stuff back with him? How the hell did he bring everything with him in the first place? How did he _do_ it?

 _Why_ did it happen while he was sleeping? Could he even do it again? Was it going to happen by surprise like it had last time? What had triggered it?

He didn’t remember having any nightmares that night but he didn’t really remember having _any_ dream that night. He didn’t tend to remember his dreams much anymore. He scrubbed a hand through his hair in frustration. He hadn’t felt this lost since he was a kid still figuring out his Gem powers.

Oh, guess he was _still_ figuring out his Gem powers. He glared down at his Gem, cursing it silently since he was sure Jasper wouldn’t appreciate him being a little pissed off at his own Gem. It wasn’t like it was even logical to be angry at it because gaining certain powers had always come at some invisible threshold of experience in using his abilities. He shouldn’t even be surprised that he had unlocked another Gem power at this point.

Sadly, however, he was half human so his brain wasn’t always completely logical and he was _pissed off_ that his Gem powers had interrupted his relaxation time. Don’t get him wrong, he still _loved_ being a Gem despite every horrible thing that had happened to him because of it. The thing was, growing up with the Gems initially had left him with an immature mindset that was _not_ ready to deal with the things life threw at him because of his half Gem heritage. At that point he had to grow up _too_ fast just to catch up and it left things a little awkward when he didn’t get certain social cues that most any other boy or girl his age would understand.

He only really had his dad and the Gems for company growing up for the most part. He had only met Connie once he was thirteen and at that age he really didn’t look or act it due to his Gem heritage. Gems weren’t meant to change. His mother had been the first to change and it had only taken seeing the flourishing life on Earth for her to realize that what she and the other Diamonds were doing was _wrong_.

She had done everything she could as Pink Diamond and when that didn’t work she put her all into changing the lower class Gems and getting them to think freely. He could admire her for that but that didn’t make his anger any less for the situation she had left him in. The only thing that had softened the Diamonds up was the thousands of years of grief she left them with and even then they didn’t accept that she was really gone until he had proven that he was only _him_ and _not_ his mother. The result of all this was a seething mass of complexes with a thin veil of humanity pulled over it to try to keep him going.

He laughed at his self deprecating conclusion, making Jasper raise an eyebrow in question. He shook his head, not willing to explain why he was laughing.

“Okay, so we’re twenty years in the past. What the hell do we even do? Is there a precedent for going forward in time?” he asked Jasper. The orange Gem shrugged.

“I don’t know much about time travel or the tech that usually allows it. That’s a job for a Peridot.” Jasper said with a shrug. Yeah, that wasn’t helpful. He didn’t _want_ to hear that it was looking more and more likely he would have to go to Homeworld to get anywhere.

If he didn’t reveal himself for what he was, he likely wouldn’t get the answers he wanted from any loyal Gem. He didn’t want to interact more with the Crystal Gems than he already had as it felt too much like messing with his personal past. On top of that, he doubted they would know much about time travel technology anyway considering he’d never heard anything else about it after the fiasco with the Legendary Glass of Time. Then again, maybe that was just the Gems leaving the subject alone as something had clearly happened with it before that had to do with Steven and they weren’t willing to chance it.

He let out a resigned sigh, realizing that regardless of what he wanted, he needed to contact Homeworld to get more information on time travel. Jasper would likely be happy at least. If he was going to Homeworld he might as well stop and get Spinel first too. He turned back to Jasper, trying to ignore the anxious feeling that settled in the bottom of his gut.

“I don’t want to, but I’m going back to Homeworld. The Crystal Gems aren’t going to be any help dealing with time travel. Are you coming with me?” Steven asked. Jasper straightened up, grinning.

“Of course I am, My Diamond. As if I’d let you go there alone when the Diamonds don’t know who you are. Where’s the closest warp in this time?” She asked.

“It’s not that far away from this barn, actually. It wouldn’t take us long to get there from here but I have a stop to make back in Beach City first.” Steven said decisively. He would need to stop to stock up on food from the small grocery store Beach City had because he knew it wasn’t going to be easy to convince the Diamonds he literally _needed_ to eat. He got in the car, waiting until Jasper shoved herself back into his back seat and closed the door before he took off to his stop in Beach City.

He didn’t know exactly _what_ he was going to tell the Diamonds. He didn’t want to tell them about there still being Gems on Earth but he needed their essences to cure the corrupted Gems on Earth. He would definitely have to tell them about Pink faking her shattering to even explain his existence. He would just have to tell them that she had hid out on Earth and had a son.

He would also need to explain what a son was to them and it would likely still be awhile before they got that he wasn’t Pink Diamond even if he had her Gem. He was _not_ looking forward to it _or_ to trying to get an audience with White. As it was, he already knew he was going to have to _make_ her listen to him. Hell, it probably wasn’t going to be easy to talk to _any_ of the Diamonds because no other Gem would believe that he was who he said he was.

The Diamonds were the only ones who would recognize the feeling of Pink’s power. Then again, stuck in his pink form as he seemed to be, he had diamond shaped pupils when he was really emotional and the _only_ Gems who had those were Diamonds. He had no doubt other Gems could probably shape shift their pupils into Diamonds but any Gem that wasn’t in the Rebellion wouldn’t dare. Seeing as it was thought that all Gems on Earth were destroyed at the end of the war, he probably wouldn’t be suspected of being from the Rebellion at least.

Well, either way he wouldn’t know how he was going to be received until he got there. It could go either way. They might just assume he was just another regular Gem that made terrible choices when shape shifting if his pupils went/stayed diamond shaped. He would have to wait and see.

He finally got to the small store and hurried in, stocking up on mostly canned veggies and bottled water as they would last longer than most things. He had finally learned how to store things in his Gem although he didn’t use that ability much since he had the Dondai to keep his things in. He would have to as he was warping to Homeworld and not taking a ship, thus he wouldn’t have anywhere else to put it. People predictably stared at him as he grabbed what he wanted and brought it up to a register.

If there was one thing having glowing pink skin was good for it was getting attention where he didn’t want it. Once he had paid he left as soon as was possible, hurrying out of the store and putting everything he bought on the passenger side of the Dondai so Jasper couldn’t accidentally ruin any of his food. After that, they were on their way back to the barn to warp to the Galaxy Warp.

**Author's Note:**

> This is all an attempt on my part to see Steven get some closure in regards mainly to his mother and the things she chose to do. I guess we'll be seeing where this goes together. Also, the next chapter isn't nearly as big as the first. I just couldn't really find a good place narratively to cut it off.


End file.
